From The New York Times…
News Outlets in Utah Decline to Reveal ‘Immigrant’ List
By Jeremy W. Peters and Brian Stelter
The letters arrived in plain, unmarked 8 1/2-by-11 envelopes, with no return address.
And when newspaper editors and television producers across Utah examined the contents, they were perplexed.
“It was a complete surprise to me when I opened it,” said Joseph Cannon, editor of The Deseret News in Salt Lake City.
As an employee of a news organization, Mr. Cannon is accustomed to receiving a fair share of mail from the disgruntled and the outraged. And he assumed that the letter and its accompanying list, which purported to contain the names, addresses and phone numbers of illegal immigrants, was just another tasteless effort to grab his attention.
“My first impulse was to throw it away, actually,” Mr. Cannon said, adding: “It seemed like some sort of weird hoax. Who would do this?”
The Deseret News, like other news organizations in Utah, did not reveal the list. “I would be pretty shocked, even in this state, if somebody did that,” said Michael Anastasi, a managing editor at The Salt Lake Tribune.
Many news media outlets said they doubted the veracity of the list and realized that the information on it was most likely obtained through surreptitious and possibly illegal means.
News organizations, like Utah authorities, were trying to determine on Wednesday who had sent the letters and how the personal information of so many people had been exposed.
In addition to refusing to publish the information, news outlets took other steps to conceal the identities of those on the list.
When local television stations have shown copies of the list in news reports, they have blurred the image or used extreme close-ups that do not convey any personal details.
Stations and newspapers have tried to call people on the list, reaching some. Those fearing they are on the list have also contacted news outlets to ask if they or their loved ones are included.
The management at KTVX, the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City, received the list in the mail on Monday, said Dan Metcalf, the station’s executive producer of online media.
Mr. Metcalf said he had been e-mailed by a viewer who was concerned that his relatives might appear on the list.
“He asked, ‘Where can we find the list?’ But we’re not going to publish it for obvious reasons,” Mr. Metcalf said.
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